11/4/11 Update

Update Schedule

Okay, I’m still feeling things out, but from the replies I’ve gotten, it seems like having some sort of consistent update schedule is more important than the batch vs. individual panel question. So! Let’s try this for the update schedule:

The comic will update every Thursday. There will probably be five or more panels a week, but during finals or whatever there might be less. But there will be something every Thursday– this schedule is designed to stop the site from just going dark for weeks on end like Heliothaumic did around finals and midterms.

After I limp my way to the end of the semester and winter break comes around, we’ll take another look at things and figure out a more permanent schedule. But this seems best for now.

Also: Note that the front page now just shows the first panel all the time! Since the comic is updating in batches for now, showing the most recent panel would just spoil the end of every update, which is stupid.

A lot of people are also saying that they’d prefer full pages to the panel-by-panel updates. The panel-by-panel navigation isn’t just a scheduling thing, though (although it does make keeping the comic going a lot more flexible)– it’s mainly meant to create a specific reading experience. It’s a bit of an experiment, since I’m used to working in traditional pages, but it’s one worth giving a shot, I think. Underneath every comic, there are buttons to tag the panel you’ve left off on, and then return to your place. You can also just check the archive sidebar to the right of the comic, which groups updates by day, so it’s easy to see what’s in a new batch. It’s a bit like how MSPA’s archives and updates are structured, but rest assured that at least there won’t be buttons underneath every page that show long chatlogs.